


There is no Explanation

by imdeannotdead



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Carlos' Lab, Cecil is a Dork, F/M, Female Carlos, For Science!, Freaked Out Carlos, Gen, Genderbending, M/M, Mindless Fluff, NVCR Intern Death Toll, Night Vale Community Radio, Original Radio Broadcast, Very Very Brief Explicit Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-22
Updated: 2014-07-22
Packaged: 2018-02-05 17:25:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1826242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imdeannotdead/pseuds/imdeannotdead
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are very few constants in the small town of Night Vale: Cecil's radio broadcasts, the lights above the Arby's, the rising and setting of the sun, and the constant broadcast of WZZZ, the local numbers station.<br/>Carlos, the town's favorite scientist, is no longer a constant.<br/>He's a variable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There is no Explanation

" _I wake up, and every day is a new day, and I don't care. Welcome to Night Vale._ "

Carlos woke, like any other morning, to the smooth, soothing sound of Cecil's voice flowing from the radio in the kitchen of his otherwise silent apartment. He stretched out a little, relishing the empty space beside him where Cecil had been the night before, his boyfriend's voice the only thing keeping him from going back to sleep. He didn't even have to look at a clock to come to the conclusion that it was ten thirty; Cecil's daily show always started at ten thirty on the dot. And ten thirty meant that it was too early to be up and he needed coffee. He lazily reached for his glasses on his nightstand, letting out an audibly vocal sigh before realization smacked him across the face.

He was no longer a  _he._   _He_ was a  _she._

The sigh was much too high pitched to have come from _his_ mouth, but no one else was in his apartment, as far as he knew. And he knew he had just sighed, but... He shook his head, scrambling to shove his glasses on his face and get out of bed. He practically ran to the bathroom, too panicked to notice if anything felt different. Slamming the bathroom door behind him, he stood in front of the full-length mirror on the back of it, taking in his new reflection. _  
_

"Fuck."

Carlos was definitely a female. Although she was wearing the same t-shirt and pair of boxer shorts that  _he_ had worn to bed, her hair was longer and she was shorter and, the most defining newly acquired feature, she had breasts. There was no doubt in her mind that she was now also extremely awake, and that coffee  _would_ be nice, but she didn't have the time or patience to make it. Instead, she ran down into her lab, estimating that she had about twenty minutes to get to the radio station so she could talk to Cecil during the weather.

Scattered gasps filled the laboratory as Carlos' team of scientists saw a woman running down the stairs as opposed to the actual, male Carlos. They all knew about his relationship with Cecil - really, who in Night Vale didn't know? Cecil always talked about Carlos during his radio shows - so the scientists were probably so surprised at the assumption that Carlos had a woman in his apartment with him.

"No, no, I know what you're thinking," she said, holding her hands up as if to surrender as she stopped on the bottom step. "No, it's me, I'm Carlos. I just woke up like this." The room instantly filled with murmurs, none of them decipherable. "Now I know we're researching the house that doesn't exist in Desert Creek, but if there are a few of you who would take the time to help me out with this," she gestured broadly to her body, "it would be greatly appreciated."

Carlos silently thanked the few scientists that joined her at the stairs. "Alright, first of all, I need clothes. Do any of you have clothes here that you don't mind me borrowing?" One lone scientist, Rachelle, motioned for Carlos to follow her back to the lockers that were conveniently placed in the back of the lab next to the bathroom and lab coat hangers. "Thank you, Rachelle."

Rachelle shook her head, waving a hand dismissively as she unlocked her locker. "Oh, it's no problem at all, Carlos," she hummed, pulling a complete stack of clothes out of her locker. "I always keep a full set of clothes here, just in case. Everything's there; shoes, underwear, socks. I'm prepared for almost everything." Carlos let out a light laugh, nodding a little as she headed into the bathroom to change out of the t-shirt and boxers she had almost forgot she was wearing.

Carlos emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later, the borrowed clothes fitting her surprisingly well. She donned her lab coat as she shoved the discarded t-shirt and boxers in her own locker. Walking back over to the group of scientists that had offered to help with her newly acquired femininity, she began to explain what needed to happen. "Now, I have no idea what brought this on. The only explanation I can think of is a malfunction or complete deletion of the SRY gene on my Y-chromosome, but that would only halt the production of testosterone, and this is much more than a halt in testosterone production. We need to run some tests." As she began walking toward her own little section of the lab, she continued, "As much as I hate that I have to do this, I need someone to draw some of my blood."

"Why?" one of the scientists, Ron, asked as he proceeded to get a needle-ended syringe anyway. "What good will blood do for this?"

"So we can get white blood cells," she explained, sitting down on the stool in front of her computer, which had Night Vale Community Radio's webpage open and playing the broadcast that was going on. "For karyotyping," she elaborated, rolling the sleeve of her lab coat up and trying to remain calm as Ron wiped the bend of her elbow with rubbing alcohol and poked the syringe into the vein there. "Would anyone mind preparing the cells? I need to go talk to Cecil." One of the biologists of Carlos' ragtag group of scientists volunteered to prepare the cells and even karyotype the chromosomes, taking the syringe from Ron as he finished drawing Carlos' blood.

As soon as Carlos had a Band-Aid that she probably didn't even need over the puncture wound, she was out the door, running all the way from her lab to Night Vale Community Radio. She didn't even stop at the desk in the lobby to tell the receptionist where she was going, she completely disregarded the strange sounds coming from behind the closed door of Station Management's office, she just ran into the studio despite the glowing red "ON AIR" sign above the door.

" _Um, a woman in a lab coat, a scientist, has just burst into the studio. She looks quite panicked,_ " Cecil noted into the microphone, his face taking on a confused expression as he looked at her.

"Cecil," Carlos huffed, pushing some hair out of her face. "It's me."

" _And the scientist is...Carlos? More on this as it develops. And now, listeners, I take you to - the weather._ " Cecil removed his headphones and backed away from the microphone as music filled the studio, getting up and apprehensively making his way over to where Carlos was standing. "Carlos...?" he questioned tentatively, looking down at the scientist. Carlos, still trapped in her scientific mindset from the lab, started making observations immediately: Cecil, wearing jeans and a purple and yellow flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, exposing the sleeves of tattoos (that Carlos loved) that ran up both arms, was standing at about fifteen centimeters taller than she was. It had to be Friday, she concluded based on his clothing, because he only ever dressed like that, so casually, for work on Fridays.

Finally realizing that Cecil's "Carlos...?" was open for an answer, Carlos nodded her head. "It's me," she said again, reassuring her boyfriend that time. "I'm going to explain, but first, do you have any food or coffee?" Cecil laughed lightly and nodded, the pouf of blond hair he had whisked up on the top of his head shaking gently as he did so. "I don't need coffee, but it would be nice."

The corners of Cecil's eyes crinkled behind his glasses as he smiled down at Carlos. "Of course," he drawled, his voice as comforting as ever in that moment. He sat back down, motioning for Carlos to take the seat across from him as he pressed one of the few buttons in front of him. "Jared? Will you get Carlos a coffee and a muffin from the break room?" he asked into the microphone, raising his eyebrows as he looked up through the glass window behind her.

Carlos slumped down in her seat as Cecil sat back in his. "I had no intention on this happening," she began, sighing a little. She didn't know exactly where she was going with that statement, she just thought it would be a good place to start. "I just woke up like this. I didn't think this was even possible, but..." she trailed off, laughing lightly, "I guess anything is possible in Night Vale." Cecil just nodded along, looking at Carlos in awe, like what she was saying was the most interesting thing in the world. So she just kept talking. "We just took a sample of my blood and some of my scientists and I are going to check my chromosomes for abnormalities."

Intern Jared came into the studio then, setting down a blueberry muffin and a disposable cup filled with black coffee in front of Carlos on Cecil's desk. "Do you want any cream or sugar for your coffee?" he asked, tugging on the hem of his Night Vale Community Radio t-shirt. Carlos shook her head, smiling a little at Jared as he left the booth again.

"So," Carlos began again, taking a bite of her muffin and drowning it with some coffee, "the first thing I thought was that it was a malfunction of the SRY gene on my Y-chromosome, but then I realized that wouldn't cause a total gender change. So I'm stumped as of right now."

"Carlos," Cecil sighed, her name rolling off his tongue as smooth as honey. "I don't know if it'll help, but can I tell you what I know? About all of this?"

Carlos nodded eagerly. "Of course, Cecil. Everything helps."

"While I don't know much about it, I know that it must've happened after I left, because when I woke up this morning, you were...well, _you_ ," Cecil explained, sounding almost disappointed. "Not that I mind _this_ at all," he added quickly, sitting up in his chair. "I mean, you look actually quite cute! Your perfect hair is so much longer and-"

Carlos laughed. "Cecil," she sighed endearingly, smiling across the desk at him before regaining her thoughts of science. "I'm sorry, Cecil, but I am not here for personal reasons. I am here for science. You know the town. You broadcast everything that happens. Has anything like this ever happened in Night Vale before?"

"While I've never heard of anyone in Night Vale spontaneously changing gender, I don't think it would be very surprising to anyone. I mean, the orange juice from John Peters - you know, the farmer? - made people blink in and out of existence. Compared to that, this probably won't be very surprising to the people of Night Vale."

Carlos nodded, frowning a little. "But Cecil," she began after another sip of heavenly coffee, "many things do not exist in Night Vale. Time, the house in the Desert Creek housing development; it shouldn't be surprising to the citizens if even more things begin to not-exist."

"Cecil, you're back on in thirty seconds," Intern Jared chimed in over the intercom.

Cecil nodded, smiling sadly across the desk at Carlos. "You could stay, if you want," he offered, watching as Carlos took another sip of her coffee. She just shook her head, returning the melancholy smile as she wrapped up her muffin and made her way around the desk to her boyfriend. "I'll see you later then. We can go out for dinner."

Carlos laughed quietly, sliding the muffin into a pocket of her lab coat before leaning down to kiss Cecil. "That sounds good," she agreed. "I'll be at the lab if you find out anything else." Cecil nodded, smiling at Carlos once more before turning back to the mic as the weather ended and beginning the tail end of his radio broadcast. And with that, Carlos left the studio and began her walk back to the lab.

That was one of the rare nights that Carlos couldn't get to sleep after a long day of work in the lab. Also, she was truthfully pretty stressed about spontaneously becoming a woman. She laid in bed, Cecil next to her, both of them on their backs, both on their phones, neither of them saying anything. She could see out of the corner of her eye that he was on Tumblr like she was. As much as she wanted to say something, she couldn't think of anything to say and soon enough she was still wide awake and Cecil was beginning to yawn.

He began tapping the screen of his phone, Carlos saw, and she just assumed he was adding tags to something that he was reblogging. But a few seconds later, Carlos' phone vibrated in her hands and a banner dropped down from the top of the screen that read,

**Cecil** now  
I love you. Go to sleep.

Carlos blushed profusely in the dim light made by their two phones, laughing almost silently as she locked her phone and laid it on the night stand with her glasses. She turned over onto her side so she was facing Cecil, his face still visible from the light of his phone but the slightest bit blurry to Carlos. "You go to sleep," she joked, propping herself up on her elbow. "You're the one who has to get up and go to work in the morning."

Cecil smiled, locking his own phone and setting it on his nightstand like Carlos had done before taking off his own glasses. "Carlos, sweet sweet Carlos, you're what was keeping me up," he whispered, turning onto his side so he was facing her.

"I can't sleep," she admitted, sighing in defeat. "I'm very confused and slightly unsettled by my spontaneous gender change." Cecil reached out and pulled Carlos close to him, pressing his lips to her forehead. She let out a content sigh, sinking into the familiar comfort of his embrace. In the day filled with surprise, that was one of her very few sources of normalcy.

The next few days were comparably uneventful in the aspect of Carlos being a female. They were still waiting for the cells to be ready to karyotype the chromosomes. While Carlos thought it was taking an unbearably long time, a biologist that worked for her reassured her that everything was going at a normal rate for the procedure.

It wasn't until the fourth day that something happened.

" _Contrary to popular belief, the moon isn't cold. It's very, very hot, and extremophile bacteria are the only organisms that can live there. Welcome to Night Vale._ "

Carlos laughed silently to herself, waking up just in time to catch the opening statement of Cecil's show coming from the radio in the kitchen. She went on like she had the past two mornings and all the mornings before; she put her glasses on, grabbed her phone, and made her way into the kitchen to brew a pot of coffee to go with her breakfast of gluten-free Chex cereal, reluctantly following City Council's ban on wheat and wheat by-products.

" _Listeners, I am a radio broadcast host, I am here to report the news. The town's news. And I think I am doing so when I say that Carlos...is still a woman. Or at least she was when I left this morning. She and a small subset of her team of scientists have been working diligently and are currently running tests to try and figure out the cause and/or a possible solution for her current situation. But I have to say, listeners, female Carlos, with her long black curls and her even more so delicate dark skin, is quite adorable. More on this as it develops._ "

She shook her head, smiling to herself. "Cecil," she laughed endearingly. Almost as soon as she let out another sound, she slapped her hands over her mouth. That was  _not_ a high-pitched, feminine laugh. She removed her hands from her mouth apprehensively, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. "Wait..." She sighed heavily, getting up and making her way to the bathroom, closing the door behind her like she had done three days ago to look in the full length mirror. "What the  _fuck?_ "

As if nothing had even happened before, Carlos was male again. He was immensely taller than he had been, his hair was back to its normal - albeit in need of a trim, much to Cecil's dismay - length, and he even had stubble growing on his face. Without even thinking about it, almost like it was instinct, his hands went to his chest, patting around the flat for the most part expanse under his t-shirt. He was lacking the most defining visible feature of femininity, and he was actually quite relieved.

The first thing he did when he got back to the kitchen was call Cecil. It went to voicemail, as was expected, so he just left a message going over the basics: the fact that he was male again and that the chromosomes from the blood sample he had taken a few days ago would be ready for karyotyping today so he could possibly find out why he had been a she and that he would call back again after the karyotype was finished. He went on with his morning after leaving Cecil the message, eating his Chex and drinking his coffee and even showering with the familiar feel of masculinity again.

By the time he donned his lab coat and joined the few scientists that had volunteered to help him when he first became a female, Rachelle was already waiting with a printout of the karyotype for him. "This is...weird," she began, handing it to him. "All of your autosomes were normal, but..." she pointed to the two sex chromosomes in the corner of the sheet. "Your Y chromosome had been replaced with an X. None of us understand how that could've even happened."

Carlos laughed, setting it down next to his computer. "Well," he sighed, dialing Cecil's number again, "let's just hope it never happens again."


End file.
